Innovation in Compliance - Key Board Issues Going Forward with Christina Bresani
This Week in FCPA-Episode 77, the Home for the Holidays Edition
Preparing a Company to Deal With Activist Investors
Why Every Day Is Proxy Season for Public Companies
As collective redress actions rise, sponsor and corporate statements are under high scrutiny, with an industry developing to take advantage....more
The ESG litigation landscape is rapidly developing. Activist claimants, whose end-goal is to effect change in the management, ESG policies or ESG credentials of companies or regulated firms, are progressively pressurising...more
Shareholder activism, in the form of proposals, books and records demands, and litigation, is proving to be an increasingly prevalent tool in challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. This client alert...more
Over the last month, each of the major stock market indices has experienced extreme volatility and a broad-based decline in value, largely in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The bellwether Dow Jones Industrial Average...more
Under the traditional model of corporate governance, boards of directors owe fiduciary duties to one group, and one group only — the company’s shareholders — to maximize the value of their shares. But, times are changing. In...more
On May 6, 2019, Skadden hosted the Cross-Border M&A Conference 2019, titled “Developments and Trends in US and Japanese M&A.” Key takeaways from the two panel discussions are summarized below....more
In 2018, the Delaware courts issued a broad range of important decisions addressing various corporate law and governance issues. Those decisions are relevant for public and private companies and will help shape...more
Two courts recently issued significant corporate law decisions that are meaningful for corporations and investors navigating an M&A transaction or a proxy contest. Interestingly, both decisions arose outside of Delaware,...more
In 2017, the Delaware courts once again issued many substantive corporate law decisions covering a wide range of issues critical to boards, stockholders, and officers. In addition, decisions from recent years continued to...more
Several recent decisions applying Delaware law offer helpful insight about the impact that activist investor involvement has on board decision-making leading to a transaction and how those decisions will be reviewed by the...more
The Background: In RBC Investor Services Australia Nominees Pty Limited v Brickworks Limited [2017] FCA 756 (10 July 2017) ("Brickworks case"), a large institutional investor sought to dismantle a cross shareholding...more
Yesterday’s post concerned asked the question whether shareholders can sue CEOs for social activism. The answer is of course, yes. The more interesting question is whether shareholders will win the suit. To answer that...more
The increasing activist stockholder demands upon boards of directors call for careful responses. The recent Delaware Court of Chancery decision In re Ebix Stockholder Litigation, C.A. No. 8526-VCN (Del. Ch. Jan. 15, 2016),...more
In one of the more consequential legal decisions of recent times, Magistrate Judge Kelly Rankin ruled recently that she would not strike part of a complaint filed by shareholder activists against Peabody Energy Corporation,...more
This Glossary is designed to provide law students taking Securities Regulation with a tool that will assist them in learning the basic language of securities law and achieve a working knowledge of the fundamental principles...more
Activism has become omnipresent and now targets virtually every industry sector regardless of a company’s size. The number of campaigns are up, the amount of capital allocated to activism is at an all-time high and activists...more
When it comes to engaging with shareholder activists, one size does not fit all. It’s crucial to think about the activist’s goals and possible outcomes. Is the activist seeking governance reforms, or a short-term return on...more
The Delaware Supreme Court recently held that, in certain circumstances, shareholders may be able to obtain access to privileged, internal documents in order to investigate potential breaches of fiduciary duty. In Wal-Mart...more
When a member or shareholder of a company or corporation sustains a loss, is that member’s loss directly compensable by a direct suit? Or does the member have to bring a derivative suit on behalf of the corporation? ...more
Almost every proposed corporate merger is met with a shareholder suit against the acquiring company, merger target and the target’s board of directors in which the shareholders assert that the board breached its fiduciary...more
As a threshold matter, counsel must identify, and remain clear as to, the identity of its client, which may be the company or a subsidiary, the Board or Board committee, or one or more executives. The identity of the client...more
The recent wave of proxy strike litigation, once thought to be on the rise in 2012 and 2013, has now gone two years without a significant court victory. After one notable early success, decision after decision has gone...more
At first glance, the plaintiff’s position in Bushansky v. Armacost, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88072 (N.D. Cal. June 25, 2014) seems a bit peculiar. The plaintiff had filed suit challenging Chevron Corporation’s adoption of an...more
Shareholder activism is the corporate topic du jour, be it in boardrooms, the media or Washington, D.C. While corporate boards and management need to understand the current environment and how we got here, their top priority...more
Over the past few years there has been a noticeable increase in the frequency of activist investors building up considerable stakes in German listed companies in the context of public takeovers. One reason for this...more